Christian County deputy said he was fired in retaliation for reporting sexual relationship

An attorney for the chief deputy of the Christian County Sheriff's Office said his client was fired Friday for reporting what he described as an inappropriate sexual relationship between Sheriff Brad Cole and an employee.

When asked by the News-Leader about the allegations of misconduct, Cole said there is no policy against two employees of the sheriff's office having a sexual relationship together.

"What I do on my personal time at my home is my business," he said. "I don't know what (Chief Deputy Lyndal Spencer) is saying, nor do I care what he is saying ... Anybody can say anything."

Cole defeated Spencer in a six-way Republican primary for Christian County sheriff in 2015, and, shortly after winning the general election, Cole appointed Spencer his chief deputy.

Spencer's attorney said his client delivered a letter to the county commission, county prosecutor, Cole and Ozark's police chief on Nov. 8.

The letter described a relationship between Cole and a female employee, the attorney said, adding that Cole's actions put the county at risk of a lawsuit.

Cole said he never received a letter from Spencer and declined to say whether he had seen the letter Spencer delivered to county officials.

"Anything that's a part of an internal investigation I won't talk about because I'm bound by law not to talk about internal investigations," he said.

Cole confirmed that Spencer is no longer employed at the sheriff's office. He declined to say why Spencer left the department, citing policy meant to keep personnel matters out of the public eye.

Spencer's attorney, Jay Kirksey, declined to say what reasons for termination Cole gave Spencer, other than to say they were "illegitimate." Kirksey declined to provide a copy of the letter Spencer sent to county officials.

Another sheriff's deputy told the News-Leader he, too, was fired for raising concerns about an allegedly inappropriate sexual relationship in the sheriff's office.

Billy Kostakis was hired as a sheriff's deputy in 2012 and later was promoted to corporal in the patrol division. Kostakis was fired this summer.

Kostakis said the path to his termination began when deputies he oversaw came to him with concerns about a sexual relationship between a male deputy and his female supervisor, so Kostakis, in turn, told his supervisors.

"The guys were a bit uncomfortable with it," he said. "It was just constantly talked about in the agency."

This kind of alleged sexual relationship between a supervisor and subordinate violates the sheriff's office policy, Kostakis said. At the least, he said the pair could have been put in different divisions of the department so one wasn't supervising the other.

When the female employee was promoted, Kostakis said he again brought up concerns about her relationship with the male deputy.

Kostakis said Spencer, then chief deputy, called him into a meeting lasting 20 minutes where Spencer asked him about his comments. A few days later, Kostakis said he was told he was fired for violating the department's ethics policy and mission statement.

He believes he was fired for reporting the relationship.

Spencer declined to comment for this story and referred to the News-Leader to Kirsksey, his attorney. Kirksey said he's preparing paperwork for a lawsuit on behalf of Spencer.